At the time of writing, Gary Gensler, your favourite person in the world (I'm being ironic), has sat in office for 2 years and 50 days.
Gensler was preceded by Allison Lee, also under Biden, for 87 days. And before Ms Lee we had Elad Roisman, under Trump, for only 27 days.
And before Mr Roisman you had Jay Clayton, the second-longest serving chair in the last ten years, and he was in office for 3 years and 233 days.
You see where I'm going with this? The Chair of the SEC is designated by POTUS among the available commissioners.
If everything goes to plan, which it won't, and whether he remains the Chair or not, Gensler will continue working at the SEC as a commissioner till June 2026.
This means in the worst case scenario, Gensler can only be the Chair of the SEC until the Summer of 2026.
This is the first thing he has to bear in mind: he's (professionally speaking) on borrowed time.
He can do a lot of damage to crypto between now and 2026 - he's certainly trying - but whatever damage he does can be undone by his successor in the blink of an eye.
Crypto was here before GG, and it'll survive GG for three reasons.
Partly because he won't be Chair for much longer (statistically, most Chairs remain in office for less than three years), partly because there are over 180 countries in the world and the US, as powerful as it may be, is only one of them, and partly because of the second thing he should keep in mind.
The key word is 'consent'.
Gensler is presiding a commission that's only partially on his side, reporting to a board that also includes elected officials that don't like him, ruling over a country where a significant portion of the population doesn't agree with his policies.
I know we're taught from a young age that leaders do what they want, but this isn't true.
The opposite is true: people do what they want, always.
Are you going to stop using crypto because Gensler says so? Of course not. If Binance or Coinbase get banned (which they probably won't, but I'm just saying) in the US, American crypto users will move on to different platforms.
If those platforms get banned, they'll find new ones.
If the new ones get banned, they'll use VPNs.
If they have cash, they'll relocate to a different country.
It goes on.
I'm not a US citizen but I'll tell you this: I can't even begin to emphasize how little I care what my country thinks and does about crypto.
It's because it doesn't matter. Because at the end of day, it's all white noise, background hum. Because I will continue using crypto. And whether politicians like it or not doesn't matter.
Because crypto cannot be controlled, and it cannot be stopped.
The sooner they realize this, the better.
